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Archive for the ‘general improvement’ Category

Please, never call out the name of the player you are passing to even if things have transpired in a way that you had not expected: meaning they aren’t looking and the pass that you have thrown is on its way. It’s embarrassing to do so. It means that you and he or she were not on the same page and to shout the name, shout in desperation, is a very public acknowledgement of that mistake. Better to see the ball fly out of bounds. Better that the ball smacks your teammate in the back of the head. That’ll teach ’em not to be looking for the pass. No more, “Jamal!”, okay?

Basket Interruptus is the Latin term for the shot that for all the world looks like it is going to be counted as two points, or three, but rattles an almost interminable number of times inside the rim and then pops out. So disappointing; so deflating.

Since the beginning of time, I have been telling players at our weekend camps and our http://nevertoolate.com
and in one-on-one sessions when the ball goes halfway down and then comes out that it is because they didn’t hold their follow-through. Seriously, if the ball comes that close to staying in but decides to come out what other little thing could have convinced it to finish the job? Some extra backspin to pull the ball down off the rim for sure; some extra backspin that came from some extra follow-through. Hopefully your two or three points will never be interrupted again.

The ball dances on the rim, three, four bounces, maybe even a little bump on the backboard, all soft as a shower in a five-star hotel, and then drops, nestles in, really, through the hoop. Someone on the court, the poet, the evangelist, the self-anointed coach on the floor, says what should be said: “nice touch”. This makes the shooter feel good.

At our NTL Weekend Camps and at our NYC and NTL Weekly Practice Program clinics, we talk about shooting a lot and when we talk about shooting one of the things we emphasize is the follow-through, the act of your hand staying with the ball as long as possible, as intentionally as possible (see hand in cookie jar; see goose neck in photo below).

One of the other things we say is: when the ball is on the rim, it knows where it came from, it knows what the quality of the last contact was. Did the hand flick it, let it go without care, hard like a hammer throw, hoping the ball will go in? The opposite of “nice touch” is “brick”. You don’t want brick. There is a connection between you and the ball. Keep that feeling between you and it as long as you can and when the ball is still on the rim, bouncing, deciding its fate, and your hand is still high in the air, following through, saying to the ball “I’m still with you!”, it will have a much better chance of rewarding you with another two or three points and the glory of all the players on the floor knowing that you are in possession of “nice touch”!

Like this:

1. When going left, dribble lefty. When going right, dribble righty. When you don’t know where you are going, don’t dribble at all.

2. You are playing a league game or a game where there’s a ref or somebody who is going to impose rules. It’s your team’s ball, side-out in the front court. Pass the ball to a teammate in the backcourt. (You can throw the ball into the backcourt from anywhere and it is not a backcourt violation. Just don’t touch it till you get both feet in the backcourt!) The pass to the backcourt eliminates the danger of a) catching in the front court near the half court line and stepping on the line and getting a totally demoralizing backcourt violation and b) getting trapped by a defender and the sideline/backcourt corner.

3. The first overnight basketball camp I ever went to was Friendship Farm run by Jack Donahue, the great Lew Alcindor’s (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) high school coach. The camp was heaven on earth; all basketball all-the-time. Great high school players and great high school and college coaches. (Bobby Knight came in on day and nearly killed us with defensive drills.) One day during a break, Warren Isaacs, all-time Iona College great and long-time big-time pro in Italy, pulled me aside to work on my hook shot. At one point, Coach Donahue walked by and muttered, “you’re only as good as your running hook”. Whatever Coach Donahue said, I took as gospel. You should too.

4. When you play a game of one-on-one, vary the rules. Don’t always start at the top of the key, don’t always leave the rules open ended. Some ideas: a) top of the key but one dribble maximum; b) start on one or the other low post areas, back to the basket, and go three dribbles maximum (anything more is grammar school ball); c) start in the corner or the wing; d) play one-on-one full court; e) ball handler starts at 1/2 court with a live dribble, defense starts at the top of the key. What game do you want to play?

5. Unless you are dunking the ball or dropping the ball down into the hoop, use the backboard to finish layups, especially breakaway layups. Angle out on the last step if you are coming down the middle (easy to do) and finish around the rim, not over the rim. Over the rim (meaning straight into the hoop) without using the backboard can result in the ball rolling off the rim and out. So depressing. I cannot tell you home many times I have seen heads hung after the ball rolls off the rim and out on “all alone layups – even in the pros! Take the rim out of the equation. Ball + backboard = 2 points.

1. As in any thrown ball, if your hand goes to the outside of the ball, the ball will curve. In basketball, pretty much the only time you throw a “baseball pass” is when you hit a teammate who has gone ahead of all the defense and you are throwing a 70′-90′ pass. If you throw it with your hand rotating around the outside of the ball, it will curve away and not hit your target. Instead – and this is absolutely beautiful, try it! – finish with your thumb down, your hand coming under the ball rather than around the side. This gives it a smooth backspin rotation, just like on your jumper, which we know, always hits it target!

2. When Tom Thibodeau (NBA Coach of the Year, 2010-11) and I coached together for four years at Harvard, we played a ton of pickup games together. During those games, he talked a lot, some of it smack but a lot of it just random basketball stuff. One thing he used to say was “never catch a deflected pass”. You know: someone throws you a pass and a defender deflects it. Don’t know where Thibs picked this up (it sure sounded like he was parroting something he had heard) but it makes sense in that one is likely to misjudge the flight of the ball and it will deflect off you and out of bounds.

3. When Robert Parish got traded to the Celtics in 1980, he was a four year veteran with plenty of skills. Playing with Larry Bird over the next decade, he added many more. Bird used to outlet the ball 3/4 court left-handed. He’d rebound on the right side of the rim, turn over his right shoulder and looking up court, use the hand that was away from the middle (where defense tends to be) and the hand that he could outlet quicker with, his left. Three years later, Robert Parish was outletting lefty too. If an NBA veteran can pick up a skill like that, so can you.

4. When you run the break, you run wide, right? But don’t run wide all the way to the baseline or corner (unless you are spotting up for an NBA style three pointer in the corner, the NBA’s favorite shot). Instead, hesitate when you are wide but even with the top of the key, and then angle in so you come to the hoop above the block. (I got this from Rick Pitino when he was at Providence College many years ago.) This angle allows you to A) catch and use your body to protect and finish on a layup; B) gives you the angle where you can use the backboard (rather than on a baseline drive where it’s just rim) and C) hit a teammate with a bounce pass angling in from the opposite wing. (Defense is between you and the hoop thus giving you a window to make the pass through the lane; couldn’t do that if you were coming in from the corner!) Again: angle in above the block, please. You will never regret it.

5. Similar to the efficiency of the lefthand outlet, after rebounding and deciding you are going to dribble the ball up rather than outletting with a pass (a la Magic Johnson), take the first dribble with the inside hand, the hand that will allow you to stretch the ball up court quickest. On the right side of the court, that would mean your left hand. On the left side, your right hand. If you are not outletting, you better get moving and using a long inside hand dribble is the best way to start your speed dribble up court!

1. After feeding the post yell “double”. This is fundamental, as fundamental as the “Mikan Drill”. Why yell double? The player guarding you invariably goes to bother the receiving post player. One of the first (fundamental) things the post player does is turn and look middle. The post player cannot look middle AND see your player who has vacated you to double down. Help out your teammate in the post by yelling “double”!

2. Let the post player get position before you feed the post. Not doing so more often than not results in a deflection (almost as bad as a steal). Posting up means, posting up by definition is, getting the defense on your back so you can manipulate and hold off defense so that the post player can receive the ball cleanly. It’s offense: be patient!

3. Make your left as good as your right, practice lefty (or off-hand) jumpers to better understand form. Of course we don’t mean become an ambidextrous jump shooter; gauche. But there is a reason that all great shooters are, informally, like during games of H-O-R-S-E or just in goofing around, very good off-hand jump shooters. They understand form so well that they can apply it both to their off-hand and to their strong hand. (My record in shooting 18′ jumpers alternating left hand and right hand every shot is 20 in a row. What’s yours? Try it! And then try it again and again; you’ll figure it out and become a better shooter overall.)

4. Shoot for swishes (“Swish Game”). Fred Hodson of Jonesboro, IN, NTL’s famed Shot Surgeon at our Weekend Camps (he slices open, takes apart and slowly stitches back together your shot – no pain killers) says “shrink your target”. In other words, don’t just shoot to get the ball in the hoop; shoot it to get it in a particular part of the hoop. There’s a game, comes by many names that is helpful. The “Swish Game” goes like this (it can be done from anywhere): you take two from the FT line. If you miss, it’s minus one; if you make a perfect swish (no rim at all), you get plus one; if you make but hit the rim, you get zero for that shot. Then your partner (opponent) does the same, takes two. Play to plus six or to any number you want. Making shots will all of a sudden become a by-product of shooting.

5. Aim for the bottom corner of the backboard when feeding a post player who is being fronted. I got this from Tom Thibodeau when we were coaching together at Harvard and we’d play pick up or summer league games. I’d have it on the wing; he’d be posting up. I would situate myself so that Thibs would be between me and the hoop. If he was fronted, he’d keep the defender there and tell me to throw the ball up to the corner of the backboard. This would keep the ball out of the middle of the lane where hep might be coming but also allow him (the post player) to pull it in, get footwork down and score in the lane.

Got this note from a long-time, many-time NTL Weekend Camper (mostly Santa Barbara but he got up to Portland NTL once, too). “So about a month ago I decide to get a little cardio work in anticipation of Santa Barbara on a Saturday afternoon. There is a very popular hiking trail in the mountains near my house that is 3 miles up a steep trail to a peak overlooking LA. I walk up the hill at a brisk pace and then start jogging down. I’m about halfway down and pass a young couple (in their mid 20s probably) heading up the hill. As I go past them I hear the young man say to the girl: “I get really inspired when I see old guys like that trying to stay in shape.” First time anyone has ever seriously referred to me as being old. Devastated my ego. Switching direction for a minute I need to tell you about how my son broke my heart. I’d been coaching him at the local YMCA youth basketball league since he was 5 years old. In 5th grade tells me that he doesn’t like basketball anymore and is going to quit playing. Broke my heart. But you gotta let your kids make those kinds of decisions for them-self so I say fine as long as he picks some other sport. Over the next couple years he tries some other youth sports and in his freshman year of high school finds true love: tackle football. His problem is his body. He’s 6’3″ 155 pounds his freshman year. Freshman basketball coach drooled over him, football coach wondered what position the twiggy looking kid could play. He lifts weights like crazy and finally his senior year starts at left offensive tackle. He’s 6’6″ 185 pounds. The other four offensive lineman all weigh 230-240 pounds. The tallest kid on the basketball team is 6’4″. So anyway, my son comes home from his freshman year of college for spring break a few days before I go on the hike I mentioned. He tells me he had been playing pick up basketball games in the gym at school and is having a lot of fun and is getting pretty good. He tells me he’s getting so good he can probably kick my ass. Upon thinking about it some more, he tells me, he’s sure he can kick my ass. Not only will he kick my ass, he says, he will beat me down so bad I’ll never play again. This trash talk goes on for a few days. Finally, I get sick of it and tell him to meet me at the high school gym after my team practice on Monday and we will play 1 on 1 to 15 points. He shows up and takes a few warm up shots all the while talking trash for the benefit of the couple of high school kids who were still in the gym. We start the game. I kick his ass 15-4. Moral of the story: never f*^k with a guy who just got told he was old for the first time. See you in Santa Barbara.”

Like this:

At each of the Never Too Late Basketball Weekend Camps, Adidas sponsors the NTL “Reminds Us of Awards”. Every player is acknowledged as having some quality or characteristic that reminds us of some former or present player (or referee or movie actor or who-knows-what). Coaches confer on Saturday night and we present them at the Sunday afternoon post-camp breakup lunch.

Here is the rundown on the awards from the NTL Weekend Camp, Santa Barbara, CA, May 2015

Jim Morris, perhaps the greatest 40 Shot shooter in NTL Camps history, channeled Russell Westbrook from his Bruin days (but did not dunk)

Henry Jai leaned and fell away going glass for the Sunday 4-team game winner and walked away with the coveted Chris Paul

Chinh Le, soared to the best vertical (29.75″), won the NTL Fastest Human Being, played an awesome all-around game and snatched the Cory Alexander (who graduated from U VA with a degree in psychology). C & C would have made a great backcourt in Charlottesville!

Matt Newman, also of U VA, played like another former Wahoo, Bryant Stith: smooth, skilled, relentless, equal parts good and great